On the Vital Principle, 22 1 



tary motion*. At length. Dr. Haller, afferted 

 an inherent power of contraftion in mufcular 

 fibres f, without excluding any other principle of 

 motion, in which he was followed by Dr. Gau- 

 bius;}:. About the fame time Dr. Whytt of 

 Edinburgh attempted a reformation of the Stahl- 

 ian dodrinell, to the exclufion of the indepen- 

 dent living principle. He fuppofed, however, with 

 Stahl, the vital, and other involuntary motions 

 to have been produced, at firft, by an effort of 

 the will, but to have become mechanical, like 

 the common actions of many voluntary mufcles, 

 in confequence of habit. This doftrine was 

 partly oppofed to the pre-eftablifhed harmony of 

 Leibnitz§; for it is obfervable, that the balance 

 of reditude in reafoning is commonly preferved, 

 by oppofing, to the excefs of any opinion, the 

 excefs of its contrary. 



Some philofophers began at length to imagine 

 that matter might acquire vitality, in confe- 



* HofFman, Proleg. C. III. De Seer, fluid, tenuifl". 

 L.I. S. 3. • 



t Phyfiolog. T. I. p. 465. I Pathol. S. 170. 



II Effay on the Vit. and Invol. Motions. 



§ This is the fum of Leibnitz's theory ; anima fuas 

 feqiiitur leges, et corpus itidem fuas : conveniunt vero 

 inter fe, vi harmonix inter omnes fubftantias prxftabilita, 

 quoniam omnes funt reprefentationes univerfa:. 



Brucker, T. V. p. 42Z. 



quence 



